Due to our increasingly sedentary lifestyles many of us have developed shortened and tightened anterior muscles, leading to lengthened and weak posterior muscles, pulling us forward at the chest with curvature at the base or top of the spine. Typically the anterior muscles are the chest, hips, quads and posterior are back, glutes and hamstrings.
Let’s look at 6 simple exercises and moves you can do to tidy up, correct or improve your posture.
HIPS
These are often prone to being tight leading to lengthened gluteal muscles (our buttocks!) as a result of sitting on them for too long and not actively engaging them. By stretching out /lengthening the muscles in our hips leading into our quadriceps (front of thighs) and contracting/shortening the muscles in our buttocks we can help correct this imbalance by opening up the anterior muscles and making up more upright.
UPPER BACK
We spend so much time hunched over our phones, computers, sitting at desks resulting in rounded back with lengthened back muscles, leading to a tight chest so think about exercises that open up the scapula (shoulder blades and upper chest) and contract and strengthen the back muscles.
CORE
We hear about strengthening the core repeatedly but it’s core stability is the foundation of good posture and core health. Core stability is the ability to control the spine and keep it stable while other body parts are moving. Developing core stability will tidy up no end of issues!
GLUTES
If the hips are tight as discussed, it’s a fairly safe bet the glutes are going to be weak and inactive. Focus on exercises to activate and strengthen the glutes. The stronger they are the more able they are to take stress and load away from the hips and promote good posture and gait.
ROTATOR CUFF
This group of muscles is responsible for shoulder mobility and rotation, if they’re weak the shoulders get pulled forward making you more prone to injury so really important to keep those muscles strong and mobile.
KEEP ACTIVE
Keep active, keep walking and increase your daily steps. The more you walk the more you’ll promote hip extension, glute activation and core engagement. Bottom line is it’s all about Move to Improve Posture.
EMS
Take a look at our Instagram page to see how EMS can effectively target the muscles you have difficulty engaging, which combined with prescriptive exercise can assist to improve posture.
Book a free EMS trial or Personal Training consultation with us today.
